{"id":1269,"date":"2014-11-03T12:11:18","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T17:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/?p=1269"},"modified":"2014-11-03T12:29:32","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T17:29:32","slug":"map-of-the-week-the-army-map-of-the-seat-of-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/2014\/11\/03\/map-of-the-week-the-army-map-of-the-seat-of-virginia\/","title":{"rendered":"Map of The Week: \u201cArmy Map Of The Seat Of War In Virginia”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Have you ever thought of maps as a vehicle to sway opinion? What if I told you cartographers of The Civil War used maps in order to gain support for the war and boost morale? \u201cThe Army Map of the Seat of War in Virginia\u201d was created by JG Bruff of Washington D.C. in 1862. The map portrays positions, battlefields, railroads, and a plethora of other landmarks in a detailed scientific manner. It includes major battles such as The Battle of Bull Run and also includes a list of 34 U.S. forts in the vicinity of Washington D.C. If we look carefully at Bruff\u2019s work, we realize it is prone to having political interest beyond that of reporting the war; his map strives to influence the social and economic opinion of the public in order to favor the war. The map provides a textbook example of how maps can be used in a rhetorical context to shape the thoughts and identities of its audience.<\/p>\n

We can begin to expect political interest to be prevalent due to the fact the map is created by a cartographer who works for the United States government as opposed to that of a neutral party. The political interests are first seen when analyzing the legend of the map. Bruff provided two different symbols for United States Positions as well as Confederate Positions. Although at first sight this small difference appears to be meaningless, if we look at the map from afar we may assume that only the United States had positions due to the proud flag blowing in the wind that represents their positions. In contrast, to mark Confederate positions the cartographer used a much smaller, less proud, dilapidated flag that is not as easily seen as that of the United States. Therefore we can infer that the cartographer chose to draw the audience\u2019s attention to only the United State\u2019s\u2019 positions in order to gain support and hope for the ongoing war, which was just in its infancy. This tactic results in unity and backing for the goals of the government, which increases the government\u2019s odds of achieving their goals.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Furthermore, the cartographer made the choice to showcase Washington, D.C., the Union capital, by encompassing it in a large blue diamond. By doing this the cartographer made Washington D.C. the center of attention, as well as, the fortifications surrounding it. The cartographer goes as far to include a note in the bottom right hand corner stating: \u201c48 Works of Defense around Wash and The District of C. mounting 300 Guns\u201d. We could infer this is another ploy to shape the opinion of the audience by making them believe that Washington D.C. is the mecca of the country and is well- protected against its Confederate enemies. In addition, Bruff only included a list of Union forts rather than mentioning the Confederate forts as well. Therefore Bruff portrays the Union Army to his audience as a significantly stronger force than the Confederate Army for the goal of gaining Union support for the war.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In order to help hide these political interest the cartographer employed a scientific style when drawing the map by adding a significant amount of detail. By articulating his work in this fashion the cartographer is able to convince the audience they are viewing a work of science and fact as opposed to a government made map. Most people are unaware of any rhetorical strategies due to the fact that they use maps as a window into reality and overlook the fact that there is someone who creates this tool of social construction and someone who chooses what to reveal and what to conceal. The cartographer\u2019s use of concealment is arguably their most important tactic. This is because the map claims to encompass the war in Virginia, which was at this point part of the Confederacy, but Bruff only included a zoomed in portion of the state strategically not including the southern half of the state where the new Confederate capital of Richmond was. From this we could infer that the cartographer chose not to include this portion of the state due to the fact that the Confederate troops had a stronghold near their capital as well.<\/p>\n

Evidently, \u201cThe Army Map of The Seat of War in Virginia\u201d includes multiple political goals that are not apparent to the audience at first glance, given the cartographer employs a method of concealment to disguise his creation as a work of science. Therefore this map illustrates how a work of cartography can be used in a rhetorical manner to shape the identity of its audience.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever thought of maps as a vehicle to sway opinion? What if I told you cartographers of The Civil War used maps in order to gain support for the war and boost morale? \u201cThe Army Map of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2104,"featured_media":1272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21024],"tags":[27278,27279,1148],"class_list":["post-1269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maps-of-the-week","tag-civil-war","tag-david-rumsey","tag-map"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/files\/2014\/11\/2846001.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}